In dynamic observation of an organism cell, a sample is labeled by a fluorescent material such as a fluorescent reagent or a fluorescent protein and observed by an optical microscope such as a fluorescent laser microscope in some cases. When plural fluorescent materials are used simultaneously, it is necessary to detect images of respective wavelength components (a spectral image).
However, when emission wavelengths of the plural fluorescent materials overlap, the images of these respective materials cannot be separated by the optical microscope, so that an analysis method of importing the spectral image detected by the optical microscope into a computer and separating (unmixing) it into the images of the respective materials becomes effective (see Non-Patent Document 1 or the like). Incidentally, in this unmixing, emission spectral data of the respective materials disclosed by manufacturers of reagents or the like is used.
Non-Patent Document 1: Timo Zimmermann, JensRietdorf, Rainer Pepperkok, “Spectral imaging and its applications in live cell microscopy”, FEBS Letters 546 (2003), P87-P92, 16 May 2003